{"id":828737,"date":"2026-03-16T03:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828737\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:31:09","slug":"nicolas-sarkozy-back-in-court-over-alleged-libyan-funding-for-2007-presidential-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828737\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Sarkozy back in court over alleged Libyan funding for 2007 presidential campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy<\/a> will head back to court<\/a> on Monday to defend himself against charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France<\/a>‘s first modern-day head of state to go to prison.<\/p>\n

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician — who was head of state from 2007 to 2012 — guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi<\/a>‘s Libya<\/a> for the campaign that saw him elected.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy — who has denied any wrongdoing — in October entered a Paris<\/a> jail, serving 20 days before he was released.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The retrial at the Paris Appeal Court, to run until June 3, means the 71-year-old is once again presumed innocent.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.<\/p>\n

In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May last year, for trying to extract favours from a judge.<\/p>\n

Read moreEx-president Sarkozy\u2019s 20-day prison diary: \u2018Like the Count of Monte Cristo\u2019?<\/a><\/p>\n

And in the other, he will have to serve more time over illegal<\/a> financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.<\/p>\n

In the so-called “Libyan case”, he has appealed a five-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

A lower court in September convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run. But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for the campaign.<\/p>\n

His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the “exceptional gravity” of the conviction.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy entered prison on October 21, becoming the first former head of a European Union<\/a> state to be incarcerated.<\/p>\n

Read moreSarkozy faces possible indictment over witness tampering in Libya funding case<\/a><\/p>\n

Prison diaries\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy’s aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli<\/a> was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger<\/a> in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.<\/p>\n

Members of Sarkozy’s circle have not wished to comment before the retrial.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled “Diary of a Prisoner”, with supporters queuing around the block in Paris to buy a copy when it came out in December.<\/p>\n

In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republicans party he once headed and the country’s main far-right party to “rebuild the right”.<\/p>\n

He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign financing<\/a> case with the help of a paparazzi boss. They deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former president Nicolas Sarkozy will head back to court on Monday to defend himself against charges he sought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,237919,33182,31522],"class_list":["post-828737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-libya-funding-probe","tag-nicolas-sarkozy","tag-trial"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116236745784976550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}